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<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2><A name=story3><B><FONT face=verdana
color=#339966 size=-1>ETC: Terminator debate hijacked</FONT></B><BR><FONT
face=Verdana>November 14, 2003<BR>ETC Press Release
<BR>www.etcgroup.org<BR>Terminator - or genetic seed sterilization - has been on
the agenda of the United Nations' Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for
five years. If the Gene Giants and governments get their way, the CBD will be
conducting studies on Terminator for years to come - long after suicide seeds
are commercialized and show up in farmers' fields.<BR>At the ninth meeting of
the CBD's scientific advisory body (SBSTTA 9)(1) held<BR>November 10-14 in
Montreal, four governments - Canada, New Zealand, Argentina and Brazil - were
allowed to highjack debate and stall action on Terminator by insisting that the
CBD postpone consideration of an expert technical report on the impacts of
genetic seed sterilization, arguing that the report lacks scientific rigor.(2)
While the report will be forwarded to next February's Conference of the Parties
(COP7) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it will go with a recommendation that COP7
forego action and re-direct the report to the next meeting of the scientific
body (SBSTTA10) - in late 2004 or 2005 - with the aim of providing advice to
COP8 in 2006!<BR>"It's an appalling tactic to delay action against Terminator
seeds," said Yoke<BR>Ling Chee of the Malaysia-based Third World Network. "The
Gene Giants know that CBD has already accepted a weak and partial moratorium on
GURTs [the CBD refers to Terminator as GURTs - genetic use restriction
technology] and this is an underhanded maneuver to prevent debate from moving
forward at COP7."<BR>The move to discredit the Expert Group's report is
especially disingenuous because the explicit mandate of the Group was not to
conduct a scientific assessment of Terminator - which was done several years ago
- but to examine the impacts of Terminator on smallholder farmers, indigenous
peoples and local communities. Accordingly, the Expert Group included
representation from indigenous peoples' and farmers' organizations, as well as
civil society, scientists, industry and governments.<BR>"SBSTTA9's decision is
wrong and dangerous," said Alejandro Argumedo of the Indigenous Peoples
Biodiversity Network. "Giving four governments the right to derail a report on
the impact of Terminator on indigenous peoples and local communities is like
saying that the voices of these communities are not important, and that the
social and economic impacts of Terminator can be dismissed," said
Argumedo.<BR>Seed Industry Coup at SBSTTA9: The presence of Monsanto and Delta
& Pine Land at SBSTTA9 may very well have something to do with the surprise
objection by four governments to the Expert Group's report on Terminator. A
Monsanto employee attended SBSTTA9 as the representative of the Biotechnology
Industry Organization and Delta & Pine Land's Vice-President for Technology
Transfer represented the International Seed Federation. Earlier this year, these
industry representatives co-authored a paper defending GURTS and extolling the
theoretical virtues of Terminator for small farmers and indigenous peoples.(3)
Both Monsanto and Delta & Pine Land have vested interests in Terminator
technology. (Delta and Pine Land jointly holds three patents on genetic seed
sterilization with the US government. Although in 1999 Monsanto's then-CEO
publicly pledged not to develop Terminator seeds, there is growing evidence -
including the championing of Terminator by one of its employees - that ! the
Gene Giant is changing its tune.)<BR>Sterile Harvest Coming Soon:<BR>"While CBD
is chasing paper and conducting endless studies, multinational Gene Giants are
winning new patents and planning to field test sterile seed technology soon. If
delays such as the one we just saw in Montreal continue, we'll have sterile
harvests in farmers' fields within a year or two. If CBD fails to take decisive
action to prevent commercialization of Terminator seeds, it will be a profound
betrayal of its mandate to protect biodiversity," said Hope Shand of ETC
Group.<BR>The governments gathering in Kuala Lumpur at COP7 need to muster the
political will to put an end to delays and to take decisive action to stop
Terminator.<BR>For further information, contact:<BR>Hope Shand, ETC Group (USA)
hope@etcgroup.org tel: 919 9605223<BR>Pat Mooney, ETC Group (Canada)
etc@etcgroup.org tel: 204 4535259<BR>The Action Group on Erosion, Technology and
Concentration, formerly RAFI, is an international civil society organization
headquartered in Canada. The ETC group is dedicated to the advancement of
cultural and ecological diversity and human rights. www.etcgroup.org. The ETC
group is also a member of the Community Biodiversity Development and
Conservation Programme (CBDC). The CBDC is a collaborative experimental
initiative involving civil society organizations and public research
institutions in 14 countries. The CBDC is dedicated to the exploration of
community-directed programmes to strengthen the conservation and enhancement of
agricultural biodiversity. The CBDC website is
www.cbdcprogram.org<BR>Endnotes:<BR>(1) Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical
and Technological Advice. For more information on the meeting, see
http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meeting.asp?mtg=SBSTTA-09 </FONT></A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" size=2><FONT face=Verdana>(2) The "Report of the
Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group Meeting on the Potential Impacts of Genetic Use
Restriction Technologies on Smallholder Farmers, Indigenous and Local
Communities and Farmers' Rights, is available on the Internet: <BR><A
href="http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meetings/sbstta/sbstta-09/information/sbstta-09-inf-06-en.pdf">http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meetings/sbstta/sbstta-09/information/sbstta-09-inf-06-en.pdf</A><BR>(3)
The full text of the paper is available
here:<BR>http://www.etcgroup.org/documents/collins_kreugerISF.pdf</FONT><BR></DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"
size=2>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<BR>"Wir brauchen keine
Bio-Terroristen, wenn wir Gentechniker haben."<BR>Independent Science Panel (<A
href="http://www.indsp.org">www.indsp.org</A>)</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>